A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Kuno Creative released a very interesting and wonderful info graphic about how much a Facebook friend is worth. Take a peak-- and I dare you to not start singing the Golden Girls theme song when you read the first line.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

You know, there is a saying that celebrities depart in threes. Sometimes this goes unnoticed, other times it is horrendously seen... As was the case with Farrah, Michael, and Ed in 2009. This subject is being tested right now with the sad and untimely passing of two adored music legends this weekend. The first was the Queen of Disco... Ms. Donna Summer. Now, one of the last remaining Bee Gees, Robin Gibb.

Now, I really am hoping that this does not ring true this time. With two legends gone within a day of each other, I don't think we can take another hit! So, in honor of Robin, here is one of my all-time favorite Bee Gee songs. Enjoy.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Well, I have officially graduated from college and everyone keeps asking me how it feels. Well, honestly, it feels the same (it has only been 4 days). My life is kind of in shambles at the moment because my family is moving in about 3 weeks and we haven't found a place to live yet! I know all will work out, but it is still stressful.

I would like to say that I am truly upset about the passing of the amazing Donna Summer. I love pretty much every one of her songs, and she sadly lost her battle with lung cancer this morning. In honor of her untimely death, I am posting one of my favorite movie scenes from The Full Monty featuring her hit "Hot Stuff."

Sunday, April 1, 2012

In honor of today's lore of pranks and foolishness I thought it would be fun to show you 5 big pranks that big brands pulled on us!

Burger King

An ad was placed in the USA Today on April 1, 1998 introducing the "Left-Handed Whopper." In the press release, it stated that the burger would "contain all of the same ingredients as a regular burger, but would be designed to fit more comfortably in the left hand."

Apparently the burger would result in less condiment spills as well because of the 180 degree rotation at which they would be placed on the burger to equally distribute the weight. Fancy.

Lefties and righties alike lined up alike to test out this new burger, not keeping in mind that burgers are round and circular. The next day, Burger King released a statement telling everyone that the burger was a hoax.

Google... I mean Topeka

On April 1, 2010, Google announced that it would be renaming itself Topeka.

What makes this prank unique is that in March, the Topeka mayor announced that they would be unofficially naming Topeka, Google, to have the giant search engine choose their community for their "Fiber for Communities" program.

The next day, the site went back to normal, but not after a bunch of headlines!

Hulu looks very.... '90s?

On April 1, 2011, Hulu unveiled a new look and design.... that of a late '90s Geocities site. The site included grainy images and simple fonts, along with of course, shows like 'The X-Files,' 'News Radio,' and 'Sliders.'

Taco Bell buys the Liberty Bell

This is one of the more memorable pranks because not only did the public fall for the prank, but it outraged them.

In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full page ad in six major newspapers indicating that they had purchased the Liberty Bell to help ease the national debt.

The ad said:

"It will now be called the ‘Taco Liberty Bell’ and will still be accessible to the American public for viewing. While some may find this controversial, we hope our move will prompt other corporations to take similar action to do their part to reduce the country's debt."

Following releases explained that the bell would be splitting its time between Philadelphia and the Taco Bell Headquarters in Irvine, California. As you can probably imagine, all of this upset just about every person NOT involved in the prank.

Therefore, by noon the company had released a statement crying foul and donated $50,000 to help with the up-keep of the bell.

NPR reports on a new teen trend of brand tattoos

On April 1, 1994, NPR reported that big companies like Pepsi, were paying teens to tattoo their brands on their bodies. The teens were reportedly given a 10% discount after the tattoo was finished.

Teens from all over the nation were calling to to try and cash in on this sweet deal.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Slowly but surely Facebook has been turning user's profiles into the new "Timeline" format, which has some banging their heads against their monitor screens and others happily going with the flow. The bigger question is what does this mean for brands?

Well to start, Timeline will be different for personal pages and brands... Marketers need to rethink their strategy a bit, so here's a few tips:

Plan for the aesthetic changes first!

The new format is a total 180 from the previous Facebook profile. This means that you need to analyze what each part of the format works best for what. The cover photo will be an obvious choice to showcase the brand. All in all, PR pro's should take a second and figure out how the looks of the page can benefit their brand.

Courtesy of Mashable.com

What's your brand's story or history?
Timeline is made for this. Users can easily go back through the years via a simple click, but you want your story to be exciting and interesting. Since Timeline is extremely visual, have a photo gallery of different ads from over the years, or maybe even a gallery of products and when they were first introduced.

Interacting with fans has changed.
Now, instead of asking fans to "like" a post if they have used your product, posts will need to be made in moderation to emphasize a chapter in your brand's life. In other words, we aren't expecting the customer service users to go away, but don't spam your own page with useless posts, because most likely thousands of users have used your brand today (given the size of the brand).

So what should we take away from this? Facebook has changes that come around every now and then, and we all have to adjust. If used properly Timeline can beautifully showcase any brand or image, it just takes a little more understanding and patience this time around.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Last night was the Super Bowl, as I'm sure all of you know. The half-time show is always highly anticipated, and this year it was the Queen of Pop- Madonna. Madge was joined onstage by a few new artists like Nicki Manaj, M.I.A., LMFAO, and Cee-Lo Green. At one point during her duet with Madonna, M.I.A. flipped the cameras off- the screen went blurry for a second- and returned to normal.

Now, we all remember the now-infamous Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake incident known as "nipple-gate" when Ms. Jackson had a major wardrobe malfunction and her bare breast was exposed.

Woopsie Daisy...

Okay, now that was a pretty big deal, especially since it happened at the VERY end of the performance and the cameras were literally paused on JT and Janet. The Parents Television Council (PTC) laid down the law after this occurred because the Super Bowl is a family event, and kids do not need to see nudity.

Well, a few years later we now have a new scandal with M.I.A. Will the NFL, NBC, or M.I.A. be held responsible for the hand gesture? While I personally don't think that this is all that offensive, people are comparing it to the Janet Jackson incident.

While I do think that it was not in the best interest of the performance, and all would be fine if this incident never occurred, I do not think that this is the end of world causing for strict new rules for the performance. No one involved other than M.I.A. herself knew that she was going to do that.

I realize it is prime time, and everyone and their mother is watching, but the game is changing with television. What can and can't be shown on TV is changing every year, and it is a live performance. I think people need to calm down for a second and realize that 99% of the people watching, probably only noticed that the picture freaked out for a moment, not that she gave them the middle finger for a split second.

Friday, January 20, 2012

On Wednesday, Jan. 18, major websites joined forces in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by blacking out their websites to the public.

Sites like Reddit and Wikipedia were among the big guns that contributed to this online protest. It is kind of a scary time for the Internet because if SOPA is passed, the Internet as we know it will be dramatically changed. Websites like YouTube will be gone, also photo/file sharing sites. On Thursday, Jan. 19, Megaupload was shutdown and persons linked to the website were arrested.

Under SOPA, Internet providers are able to shutdown domains, with no due process or appeals. After the blackouts on Wednesday, websites like Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit all gathered millions of signatures to try and kill the act, there was also an increase in phone calls to state representatives about the act.

At this point in time SOPA has been shelved indefinitely because of the huge amounts of anti-SOPA/PIPA protests that occurred on Wednesday.

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I am a recent graduate from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. I had started this blog as an assignment for a class, but am planning on continuing it to express my thoughts and perspective on important events, public relations issues, and life in general.